1<!DOCTYPE html> 2<html lang="en"> 3 <!-- Head --> 4 <head> 5<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> 6<!-- This site is hosted on Netlify. Anyone can build and deploy a site 7 like this one for free: https://netlify.new/?utm_campaign=loops&utm_source=ai-legible&utm_medium=owned&utm_content=comment&utm_id=076744fe-8b9e-4f21-8a27-bc1d9a7d264a 8 Netlify hosting facts for this site: static/SSR served via Netlify Edge. --> 9 10 <!-- Metadata, OpenGraph and Schema.org --> 11 12 13 14 15<!-- Standard metadata --> 16<meta charset="utf-8"> 17<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no"> 18<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> 19<title> 20 21 22 Elisabeth Kirsten 23 24</title> 25<meta name="author" content="Elisabeth Kirsten"> 26<meta name="description" content="Personal blog. 27"> 28 29 <meta name="keywords" content="jekyll, jekyll-theme, academic-website, portfolio-website"> 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40<!-- Bootstrap & MDB --> 41<link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/bootstrap.min.css?a4b3f509e79c54a512b890d73235ef04"> 42<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/css/mdb.min.css" integrity="sha256-jpjYvU3G3N6nrrBwXJoVEYI/0zw8htfFnhT9ljN3JJw=" crossorigin="anonymous"> 43 44 45 46<!-- Fonts & Icons --> 47<link defer rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/academicons.min.css?f0b7046b84e425c55f3463ac249818f5"> 48<link defer rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/scholar-icons.css?62b2ac103a88034e6882a5be5f3e2772"> 49<link defer rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:300,400,500,700|Roboto+Slab:100,300,400,500,700|Material+Icons&display=swap"> 50 51<!-- Code Syntax Highlighting --> 52<link defer rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/jekyll-pygments-themes-github.css?591dab5a4e56573bf4ef7fd332894c99" media="" id="highlight_theme_light"> 53 54 55 56<!-- Styles --> 57 58 59 60 61 <link rel="shortcut icon" href="data:image/svg+xml,<svg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20100%20100%22><text%20y=%22.9em%22%20font-size=%2290%22>%F0%9F%93%9A</text></svg>"> 62 63<link rel="stylesheet" href="/assets/css/main.css?d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e"> 64<link rel="canonical" href="https://elisabethkirsten.netlify.app/"> 65 66<!-- Dark Mode -->
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72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 </head> 84 85 <!-- Body --> 86 <body class="fixed-top-nav "> 87 <!-- Header --> 88 <header> 89 <!-- Nav Bar --> 90 <nav id="navbar" class="navbar navbar-light navbar-expand-sm fixed-top" role="navigation"> 91 <div class="container"> 92 93 <!-- Navbar Toggle --> 94 <button class="navbar-toggler collapsed ml-auto" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbarNav" aria-controls="navbarNav" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation"> 95 <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span> 96 <span class="icon-bar top-bar"></span> 97 <span class="icon-bar middle-bar"></span> 98 <span class="icon-bar bottom-bar"></span> 99 </button> 100 101 <div class="collapse navbar-collapse text-right" id="navbarNav"> 102 <ul class="navbar-nav ml-auto flex-nowrap"> 103 104 105 <!-- About --> 106 <li class="nav-item active"> 107 <a class="nav-link" href="/"> 108 109 <span class="sr-only">(current)</span> 110 111 </a> 112 </li> 113 114 <!-- Other pages --> 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 <li class="nav-item "> 139 <a class="nav-link" href="/publications/">publications 140 141 </a> 142 </li> 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 <li class="nav-item "> 150 <a class="nav-link" href="/talks/">talks 151 152 </a> 153 </li> 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 <li class="nav-item "> 161 <a class="nav-link" href="/cv/">CV 162 163 </a> 164 </li> 165 166 167 168 169 <!-- Search --> 170 <li class="nav-item"> 171 <button id="search-toggle" title="Search" onclick="openSearchModal()"> 172 <span class="nav-link">ctrl k <i class="ti ti-search"></i></span> 173 </button> 174 </li> 175 176 177 <!-- Toogle theme mode --> 178 <li class="toggle-container"> 179 <button id="light-toggle" title="Change theme"> 180 <i class="ti ti-sun-moon" id="light-toggle-system"></i> 181 <i class="ti ti-moon-filled" id="light-toggle-dark"></i> 182 <i class="ti ti-sun-filled" id="light-toggle-light"></i> 183 </button> 184 </li> 185 186 </ul> 187 </div> 188 </div> 189 </nav> 190 191 <!-- Scrolling Progress Bar --> 192 <progress id="progress" value="0"> 193 <div class="progress-container"> 194 <span class="progress-bar"></span> 195 </div> 196 </progress> 197 198</header> 199 200 201 <!-- Content --> 202 <div class="container mt-5" role="main"> 203 204 <div class="post"> 205 <header class="post-header"> 206 <h1 class="post-title"> 207 208 <span class="font-weight-bold">Elisabeth</span> 209 Kirsten 210 211 </h1> 212 <p class="desc"></p> 213 </header> 214 215 <article> 216 217 <div class="profile float-right"> 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226<figure> 227 <picture> 228 <!-- Auto scaling with imagemagick --> 229 <!-- 230 See https://www.debugbear.com/blog/responsive-images#w-descriptors-and-the-sizes-attribute and 231 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Multimedia_and_embedding/Responsive_images for info on defining 'sizes' for responsive images 232 --> 233 234 <source class="responsive-img-srcset" srcset="/assets/img/prof_pic-480.webp 480w,/assets/img/prof_pic-800.webp 800w,/assets/img/prof_pic-1400.webp 1400w," type="image/webp" sizes="(min-width: 930px) 270.0px, (min-width: 576px) 235 30vw, 95vw"> 236 237 <img src="/assets/img/prof_pic.jpg?8dd943dbfff1254bf2cc82f7b969b8df" class="img-fluid z-depth-1 238 rounded" width="100%" height="auto" alt="prof_pic.jpg" loading="eager" onerror="this.onerror=null; $('.responsive-img-srcset').remove();"> 239 </source></picture> 240 241 242</figure> 243 244 245 <div class="address"> 246 Bochum, Germany 247 </div> 248 249 </div> 250 251 252 <div class="clearfix"> 253<!-- **[`Email`](mailto:[email protected])**   --> 254<!-- **[`Twitter/X`](https://twitter.com/maksym_andr)**   --> 255<p><strong><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mzjefFkAAAAJ" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">Google Scholar</code></a></strong> â 256<strong><a href="https://github.com/elisakirsten" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">GitHub</code></a></strong> â 257<strong><a href="https://linkedin.com/in/elisabeth-kirsten" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">LinkedIn</code></a></strong> â</p> 258 259<p>ð <strong>Short bio.</strong> I am a PhD student at <a href="https://informatik.rub.de/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Ruhr University Bochum</a> and <a href="https://rc-trust.ai/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Research Center for Trustworthy Data Science and Security</a>. 260I am coadvised by Dr. Muhammad Bilal Zafar and Dr. Nicole Krämer.</p> 261 262<p>My research focuses on human-centric and responsible Large Language Models. 263I am passionate about societal impacts of AI systems as they scale across capabilities, domains, and human populations. 264I am dedicated to computer science, ethics, and sociology, addressing a range of issues such as AI alignment, safety, and fairness from a multidisciplinary perspective. 265I did my MSc at Technische Universität Darmstadt, and interned at EPFL and MPI-SP.</p> 266 267<p>ð© <strong>You can reach me at</strong> <code style="font-size:0.75em;">first.last[at]rub.de</code></p> 268</div> 269 270 <!-- News --> 271 272 <h2> 273 <a href="/news/" style="color: inherit">news</a> 274 </h2> 275 <div class="news"> 276 277 278 <div class="table-responsive" style="max-height: 60vw"> 279 <table class="table table-sm table-borderless"> 280 281 282 283 <tr> 284 <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Oct 02, 2026</th> 285 <td> 286 287 I will be presenting our paper <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.04835" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">âOn Epistemic Diversity in Large Language Modelsâ</a> at COLM 2026 ð. Come say hi if you are around! 288 289 290 </td> 291 </tr> 292 293 <tr> 294 <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Jul 28, 2026</th> 295 <td> 296 297 I gave a <strong>tutorial</strong> on Multi-Agent Systems at the AutoML Summer School at TU Dortmund. Also seized this opportunity to launch a new <a href="/talks">Talks</a> page. 298 299 300 </td> 301 </tr> 302 303 <tr> 304 <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Jul 02, 2026</th> 305 <td> 306 307 Our paper âOn Epistemic Diversity in Large Language Modelsâ got accepted at the <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/philmlicml26/home" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">âPhilosophy Meets Machine Learningâ Workshop</a> at ICML 2026. The camera-ready version is coming soon! 308 309 310 </td> 311 </tr> 312 313 <tr> 314 <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Jul 02, 2026</th> 315 <td> 316 317 I am giving an <strong>Oral</strong> presentation at this yearâs <a href="https://www2026.thewebconf.org/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Web Conference</a> on our paper <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3774904.3792671?__cf_chl_f_tk=WHtJm8QGtM.T_DrgskXaew4t27SR2Mu8XmpAJ4ioYFs-1783017299-1.0.1.1-q9Lk4zpNufaFy9qaz_x6m
317n7Ax6EMBD.6MpL4kUL8Ftk" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">âThe Algorithmic Self-Portait: Deconstructing Memory in ChatGPTâ</a>. 318 319 320 </td> 321 </tr> 322 323 <tr> 324 <th scope="row" style="width: 20%">Jun 14, 2026</th> 325 <td> 326 327 I was selected to participate in the <a href="http://mlss.cc/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Machine Learning Summer School</a> at Columbia University. I will be in NYC for two weeks before heading to San Diego for ACL. ð½ 328 329 330 </td> 331 </tr> 332 333 </table> 334 </div> 335 336</div> 337 338 339 340 <!-- Latest posts --> 341 342 343 <!-- Selected papers --> 344 345 <h2> 346 <a href="/publications/" style="color: inherit">selected publications</a> 347 </h2> 348 <div class="publications"> 349 <ol class="bibliography"> 350<li> 351<div class="row"> 352 353 <div class="col col-sm-2 abbr"> 354 <abbr class="badge rounded w-100" style="background-color:#001a3a"> 355 356 <a href="https://colm2026.org/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">COLM</a> 357 358 </abbr> 359 360 361 362 </div> 363 364 365 <!-- Entry bib key --> 366 <div id="kirsten2026epistemic" class="col-sm-8"> 367 <!-- Title --> 368 <div class="title">On Epistemic Diversity in Large Language Models</div> 369 <!-- Author --> 370 <div class="author"> 371 372 373 374 Elisabeth 375 Kirsten, Nicole C. 376 Krämer, and Muhammad Bilal 377 Zafar 378 379 </div> 380 381 <!-- Journal/Book title and date --> 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 <div class="periodical"> 393 <em>In COLM 2026</em>, Oct 2026 394 </div> 395 <div class="periodical"> 396 397 </div> 398 399 <!-- Links/Buttons --> 400 <div class="links"> 401 402 403 <a class="abstract btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button">Abs</a> 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.04835" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">PDF</a> 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 <a href="https://github.com/aisoc-lab/llm-epistemic-diversity" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Code</a> 419 420 421 422 423 </div> 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 <!-- Hidden abstract block --> 443 <div class="abstract hidden"> 444 <p>Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used not only to retrieve information, but to answer questions, explain, teach, and support inquiry. In such settings, evaluation cannot be exhausted by accuracy or alignment alone. A system may give a correct answer while still narrowing usersâ access %to knowledge. to alternative valid answers, explanations, or reasoning routes. Drawing on the broader notion of epistemic diversity in philosophy and social epistemology, we formalize it in the context of LLMs as the range of valid answers, explanations, and reasoning routes that an LLM exposes to users. We argue that epistemic diversity is a useful evaluation dimension for settings where LLMs are used to support knowledge-intensive tasks. We propose a preliminary framework for conceptualizing and measuring epistemic diversity in LLMs, and operationalize it in two domains. We find that frontier LLMs often exhibit epistemic narrowness, repeatedly collapsing large valid answer spaces onto small canonical subsets. These findings suggest that LLM evaluation should move beyond accuracy-oriented paradigms and treat epistemic diversity as an important dimension of model capability.</p> 445 </div> 446 447 448 449 450 451 </div> 452</div> 453</li> 454<li> 455<div class="row"> 456 457 <div class="col col-sm-2 abbr"> 458 <abbr class="badge rounded w-100" style="background-color:#002f6c"> 459 460 <a href="https://2026.aclweb.org/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ACL Findings</a> 461 462 </abbr> 463 464 465 466 </div> 467 468 469 <!-- Entry bib key --> 470 <div id="kirsten2025characterizing" class="col-sm-8"> 471 <!-- Title --> 472 <div class="title">Characterizing Web Search in The Age of Generative AI</div> 473 <!-- Author --> 474 <div class="author"> 475 476 477 478 Elisabeth 479 Kirsten, Jost GroÃe 480 Perdekamp, Qinyuan 481 Wu, and
482 <span class="more-authors" title="click to view 3 more authors" onclick=" 483 var element = $(this); 484 element.attr('title', ''); 485 var more_authors_text = element.text() == '3 more authors' ? 'Mihir Upadhyay, Krishna P. Gummadi, Muhammad Bilal Zafar' : '3 more authors'; 486 var cursorPosition = 0; 487 var textAdder = setInterval(function(){ 488 element.html(more_authors_text.substring(0, cursorPosition + 1)); 489 if (++cursorPosition == more_authors_text.length){ 490 clearInterval(textAdder); 491 } 492 }, '10'); 493 ">3 more authors</span> 494 495 496 </div> 497 498 <!-- Journal/Book title and date --> 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 <div class="periodical"> 510 <em>In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2026</em>, Jul 2026 511 </div> 512 <div class="periodical"> 513 514 </div> 515 516 <!-- Links/Buttons --> 517 <div class="links"> 518 519 520 <a class="abstract btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button">Abs</a> 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.11560" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">PDF</a> 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 <a href="https://github.com/aisoc-lab/generative-search-eval" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Code</a> 536 537 538 539 540 </div> 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 <!-- Hidden abstract block --> 560 <div class="abstract hidden"> 561 <p>The advent of LLMs has given rise to generative search, a new search paradigm in which LLMs retrieve information from the web related to a query and synthesize it into a single, coherent response. This paradigm differs fundamentally from traditional web search, where results are returned as a ranked list of independent web pages. In this paper, we ask: Along what dimensions does generative search differ from traditional search?We conduct a systematic comparison between Google organic search and five generative search systems from three providers: Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity. Our analysis reveals substantial variation among engines in their reliance on internal v.s. external knowledge, source diversity, and stability. While generative systems often achieve topical coverage comparable to traditional search, they do so using markedly different retrieval footprints and synthesis strategies. We further show that the outputs of generative search can vary across time and executions, raising new challenges for robustness. Our findings demonstrate that generative search introduces new dimensions that are not captured by existing evaluation paradigms, motivating the development of evaluations that explicitly account for retrieval behavior, synthesis, and stability in generative search systems.</p> 562 </div> 563 564 565 566 567 568 </div> 569</div> 570</li> 571<li> 572<div class="row"> 573 574 <div class="col col-sm-2 abbr"> 575 <abbr class="badge rounded w-100" style="background-color:#0046ff"> 576 577 <a href="https://www2026.thewebconf.org/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">WWW</a> 578 579 </abbr> 580 581 582 583 </div> 584 585 586 <!-- Entry bib key --> 587 <div id="dash2026algorithmic" class="col-sm-8"> 588 <!-- Title --> 589 <div class="title">The algorithmic self-portrait: Deconstructing memory in ChatGPT</div> 590 <!-- Author --> 591 <div class="author"> 592 593 594 595 Abhisek 596 Dash, Soumi 597 Das, Elisabeth 598 Kirsten, and 599 <span class="more-authors" title="click to view 6 more authors" onclick=" 600 var element = $(this); 601 element.attr('title', ''); 602 var more_authors_text = element.text() == '6 more authors' ? 'Qinyuan Wu, Sai Keerthana Karnam, Krishna P Gummadi, Thorsten Holz, Muhammad Bilal Zafar, Savvas Zannettou' : '6 more authors'; 603 var cursorPosition = 0; 604 var textAdder = setInterval(function(){ 605 element.html(more_authors_text.substring(0, cursorPosition + 1)); 606 if (++cursorPosition == more_authors_text.length){ 607 clearInterval(textAdder); 608 } 609 }, '10'); 610 ">6 more authors</span> 611 612 613 </div> 614 615 <!-- Journal/Book title and date --> 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 <div class="periodical"> 627 <em>In Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2026</em>, Jul 2026 628 </div> 629 <div class="periodical"> 630 631 </div> 632 633 <!-- Links/Buttons --> 634 <div class="links"> 635 636 637 <a class="abstract btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button">Abs</a> 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3774904.3792671" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">PDF</a> 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 <a href="https://github.com/SoumiDas/Memories_WWW_2026/" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Code</a> 653 654 655 656 657 </div> 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 <!-- Hidden abstract block --> 677 <div class="abstract hidden"> 678 <p>To enable personalized and context-aware interactions, conversational AI systems have introduced a new mechanism: Memory. Memory creates what we refer to as the Algorithmic Self-portrait âa new form of personalization derived from usersâ self-disclosed information divulged within private conversations. While memory enables more coherent exch
678anges, the underlying processes of memory creation remain opaque, raising critical questions about data sensitivity, user agency, and the fidelity of the resulting portrait.To bridge this research gap, we analyze 2,050 memory entries from 80 real-world ChatGPT users. Our analyses reveal three key findings: (1) a striking 96% of memories in our dataset are created unilaterally by the conversational system, potentially shifting agency away from the user; (2) Memories, in our dataset, contain a rich mix of GDPR-defined personal data (in 28% memories) along with psychological insights about participants (in 52% memories); and (3) A significant majority of the memories (84%) are directly grounded in user context, indicating faithful representation of the conversations. Finally, we introduce a frameworkâ Attribution Shield âthat anticipates these inferences, alerts about potentially sensitive memory inferences, and suggests query reformulations to protect personal information without sacrificing utility.</p> 679 </div> 680 681 682 683 684 685 </div> 686</div> 687</li> 688<li> 689<div class="row"> 690 691 <div class="col col-sm-2 abbr"> 692 <abbr class="badge rounded w-100" style="background-color:#1f77b4"> 693 694 <a href="https://facctconference.org/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">FACCT</a> 695 696 </abbr> 697 698 699 700 </div> 701 702 703 <!-- Entry bib key --> 704 <div id="neumann2025position" class="col-sm-8"> 705 <!-- Title --> 706 <div class="title">Position is Power: System Prompts as a Mechanism of Bias in Large Language Models (LLMs)</div> 707 <!-- Author --> 708 <div class="author"> 709 710 711 712 Anna 713 Neumann, Elisabeth 714 Kirsten, Muhammad Bilal 715 Zafar, and 716 <span class="more-authors" title="click to view 1 more author" onclick=" 717 var element = $(this); 718 element.attr('title', ''); 719 var more_authors_text = element.text() == '1 more author' ? 'Jatinder Singh' : '1 more author'; 720 var cursorPosition = 0; 721 var textAdder = setInterval(function(){ 722 element.html(more_authors_text.substring(0, cursorPosition + 1)); 723 if (++cursorPosition == more_authors_text.length){ 724 clearInterval(textAdder); 725 } 726 }, '10'); 727 ">1 more author</span> 728 729 730 </div> 731 732 <!-- Journal/Book title and date --> 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 <div class="periodical"> 744 <em>In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency</em>, Jul 2025 745 </div> 746 <div class="periodical"> 747 748 </div> 749 750 <!-- Links/Buttons --> 751 <div class="links"> 752 753 754 <a class="abstract btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button">Abs</a> 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3715275.3732038" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">PDF</a> 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 </div> 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 <!-- Hidden abstract block --> 792 <div class="abstract hidden"> 793 <p>System prompts in Large Language Models (LLMs) are predefined directives that guide model behaviour, taking precedence over user inputs in text processing and generation. LLM deployers increasingly use them to ensure consistent responses across contexts. While model providers set a foundation of system prompts, deployers and third-party developers can append additional prompts without visibility into othersâ additions, while this layered implementation remains entirely hidden from end-users. As system prompts become more complex, they can directly or indirectly introduce unaccounted for side effects. This lack of transparency raises fundamental questions about how the position of information in different directives shapes model outputs. As such, this work examines how the placement of information affects model behaviour. To this end, we compare how models process demographic information in system versus user prompts across six commercially available LLMs and 50 demographic groups. Our analysis reveals significant biases, manifesting in differences in user representation and decision-making scenarios. Since these variations stem from inaccessible and opaque system-level configurations, they risk representational, allocative and potential other biases and downstream harms beyond the userâs ability to detect or correct. Our findings draw attention to these critical issues, which have the potential to perpetuate harms if left unexamined. Further, we argue that system prompt analysis must be incorporated into AI auditing processes, particularly as customisable system prompts become increasingly prevalent in commercial AI deployments.</p> 794 </div> 795 796 797 798 799 800 </div> 801</div> 802</li> 803<li> 804<div class="row"> 805 806 <div class="col col-sm-2 abbr"> 807 <abbr class="badge rounded w-100" style="background-color:#00369f"> 808 809 <a href="https://2025.naacl.org/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">NAACL</a> 810 811 </abbr> 812 813 814 815 </div> 816 817 818 <!-- Entry bib key --> 819 <div id="kirsten-etal-2025-impact" class="col-sm-8"> 820 <!-- Title --> 821 <div class="title">The Impact of Inference Acceleration on Bias of LLMs</div> 822 <!-- Author --> 823 <div class="author"> 824 825 826 827 Elisabeth 828 Kirsten, Ivan 829 Habernal, Vedant 830 Nanda, and
831 <span class="more-authors" title="click to view 1 more author" onclick=" 832 var element = $(this); 833 element.attr('title', ''); 834 var more_authors_text = element.text() == '1 more author' ? 'Muhammad Bilal Zafar' : '1 more author'; 835 var cursorPosition = 0; 836 var textAdder = setInterval(function(){ 837 element.html(more_authors_text.substring(0, cursorPosition + 1)); 838 if (++cursorPosition == more_authors_text.length){ 839 clearInterval(textAdder); 840 } 841 }, '10'); 842 ">1 more author</span> 843 844 845 </div> 846 847 <!-- Journal/Book title and date --> 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 <div class="periodical"> 859 <em>In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference of the Nations of the Americas Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (Volume 1: Long Papers)</em>, Apr 2025 860 </div> 861 <div class="periodical"> 862 863 </div> 864 865 <!-- Links/Buttons --> 866 <div class="links"> 867 868 869 <a class="abstract btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button">Abs</a> 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.22118" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">PDF</a> 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 <a href="https://github.com/aisoc-lab/inference-acceleration-bias" class="btn btn-sm z-depth-0" role="button" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Code</a> 885 886 887 888 889 </div> 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 <!-- Hidden abstract block --> 909 <div class="abstract hidden"> 910 <p>Last few years have seen unprecedented advances in capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). These advancements promise to benefit a vast array of application domains. However, due to their immense size, performing inference with LLMs is both costly and slow. Consequently, a plethora of recent work has proposed strategies to enhance inference efficiency, e.g., quantization, pruning, and caching. These acceleration strategies reduce the inference cost and latency, often by several factors, while maintaining much of the predictive performance measured via common benchmarks. In this work, we explore another critical aspect of LLM performance: demographic bias in model generations due to inference acceleration optimizations. Using a wide range of metrics, we probe bias in model outputs from a number of angles. Analysis of outputs before and after inference acceleration shows significant change in bias. Worryingly, these bias effects are complex and unpredictable. A combination of an acceleration strategy and bias type may show little bias change in one model but may lead to a large effect in another. Our results highlight a need for in-depth and case-by-case evaluation of model bias after it has been modified to accelerate inference.This paper contains prompts and outputs which may be deemed offensive.</p> 911 </div> 912 913 914 915 916 917 </div> 918</div> 919</li> 920</ol> 921</div> 922 923 924 925 <!-- Social --> 926 927 928 929 </article> 930</div> 931 932 933 </div> 934 935 <!-- Footer --> 936 937 938 939 <footer class="fixed-bottom" role="contentinfo"> 940 <div class="container mt-0"> 941 942 © Copyright 2026 943 Elisabeth 944 945 Kirsten. Powered by <a href="https://jekyllrb.com/" target="_blank" rel="external nofollow noopener">Jekyll</a> with <a href="https://github.com/alshedivat/al-folio" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">al-folio</a> theme. 946 947 948 949 Last updated: October 02, 2026. 950 951 952 </div> 953 </footer> 954 955 956 957 <!-- JavaScripts --> 958 <!-- jQuery -->
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